Up until now, various imaging apparatuses having a solid state imaging device formed with a pair of two photoelectric conversion elements capable of obtaining signals which are different in sensitivity so as to expand a dynamic range (D range) has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1).
The imaging apparatus described in Patent Document 1 has a solid state imaging device, in which the solid state imaging device includes: a pair of pixel units of two photoelectric conversion elements which includes red color filters each having different wavelength selectivity and disposed at an upper portion thereof, a pair of pixel units of two photoelectric conversion elements which includes green color filters each having different wavelength selectivity and disposed at an upper portion thereof, and a pair of pixel units of two photoelectric conversion elements which includes blue color filters each having wavelength selectivity and disposed at an upper portion thereof. Further, an improvement in color reproducibility is realized by synthesizing signals obtained from each of the two photoelectric conversion elements of each pair of pixel units. In addition, an expansion of a dynamic range is realized by making the sensitivity between the two photoelectric conversion elements of each pair of the pixel units to be different (changing a structure of the two photoelectric conversion elements or changing exposure time of the two photoelectric conversion elements).
In the case of the solid state imaging device having a configuration described in Patent Document 1, because spectral characteristics of the two photoelectric conversion elements of the pair of pixel units are different, there is a need to devise a method of adjusting the white balance. However, Patent Document 1 does not describe a method of adjusting white balance.
Patent Documents 2 to 4 disclose a technology of adjusting white balance. However, Patent Documents 2 to 4 all disclose a technology of a solid state imaging device having a configuration different from that described in Patent Document 1, which cannot implement both of the improvement in color reproducibility and the improvement in precision of a white balance adjustment.